It’s the time of year the fluffy white stuff and frost come as a surprise, although when out shopping the background music at this time of year can be seen as the equivalent of a rain-dance. 
Although it was only short lived here, the arctic spell created havoc every where else. Madrid airport intermittent closed so where a range of UK airports. The daughter and granddaughter of friends of ours,arrived the evening before on a UK airport, only to be told in the morning that the flight was cancelled – “Go back home and try on the Internet – Money back or reschedule” – Well we all know that Ryanbus is not very customer friendly at the best of times and that probably half of all passengers wanted to do just that, go home.
So a big disappointment as obviously all other flight where booked solid.
Imagine sitting in the Eurotunnel (Folkestone UK – Calais France) in a passenger train and all electricity fails. If you think this wont happen, think again – 3 trains where stranded in the Tunnel and due to brilliant organisation it took up to 6 hours to evacuate them.
Now than, we got caught out and the first night of frost (-15C) unfortunately showed that layers of fleece in a poly tunnel is just not enough.
We found an old infrared lamp (150W) and an old Aquarium flat heater (220W) which we installed to at least keep the worst frost at bay. When I went to bed that night I thought I had drunk a little too much as there was this red blob at the far end of the garden. Grabbing the camera I went out and than it dawned on me that we had installed this infrared lamp, bathing the whole tunnel in soft red light. Apologies for the unsharp image but it was freezing and my camera said “20 seconds mate”…..
Neither the neighbors nor the cows have yet commented on it, but I’m sure we will be teased about it.
This being rural Galicia it didn’t last long. Torrential rains made short work of the white stuff and when the sun broke through it all looked like nothing had ever happened here.
One only realises that the water table is back to normal when undertaking a walk.
Wellies are a very good investment at this time of year.
Little streams, totally forgotten during the long and dry summer, reappear and also tend to use the caminos, at least for a bit.
The beef cattle is rather unimpressed and slightly curious about who comes along and dares to trespass.
I think the inhabitants of Sober have slowly become used to us and even the bar staff in the Ribeira Sacra (A bar in Sober) doesn’t raise an eyebrow when we arrive in full walking gear.
Also this week I became a model for Anna Champeney and one of her gorgeous natural scarfs – being featured on her blog – Textiles Naturales in the Ribeira Sacra – in Spanish – Proyecto de Tintes Naturales or in English – Autumn Scarf Natural Dyeing Project
Anna was on our x-market and is creating wonderful products from natural fibres and natural dyes.
Here is the plug – Stay at our Casa de Flores and a great day out is a tour around the Rio Sil including a visit to Anna’s workshop and shop where you encounter Lluis a very well known basket maker. – Plug ends.
Have a great christm,as and an even better new year
Expat
